STYLE WARS is regarded as the primary chronicle of New York Street culture of the early '80s, the filmic witness of a golden age of youthful creativity that exploded into the world from a city in crisis.
"The Holy Grail of hip-hop movies." --XLR8R
"Remarkable! A movie that, per KRS-One, 'anybody who wants to understand hip hop needs to see.' Also anyone who wants to understand New York, and a lot more." --Premiere
STYLE WARS captured the look and feel of New York's dilapidated subway system as graffiti writers' public playground, battleground and spectacular artistic canvas. Opposing them by every means possible were Mayor Edward Koch, the police, and the New York Transit Authority. Meanwhile MCs, DJs and B-boys rocked the metropolis with new sounds and new moves and street corner breakdance battles evolved into performance art.
New York's legendary kings of graffiti and b-boys own a special place in the hip Hop pantheon. STYLE WARS has become an emblem of the original, embracing spirit of hip hop as it reached out across the world from underground tunnels, uptown streets, clubs and playgrounds.
Directed by Tony Silver and produced by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant, it was awarded the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 1983 Sundance Film Festival.
Some props include:
"Evocative. Unforgettable. Style Wars emanates joy from both sides of the camera. A film that vibrates with the energy, poetry and color of an art form rising up from the streets. The two-disc DVD gives the film the deluxe treatment it deserves. Best DVD of the Year". --Nathan Rabin, The Onion
"Captures this vibrant street culture with one of the most revelatory documents of the times." --Ethan LaCroix, Time Out New York
The Restoration Project
In the early 1980s, Mayor Koch, outraged about graffiti, began buffing the city's colorful, painted trains. In the end, he may have succeeded, but not before Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant captured the marvelous tidal wave of graffiti in their pioneering documentary, Style Wars. The film is seen around the world as an important footnote in hip hop culture and New York City history. Today, that history, too, is threatened. The original footage was damaged and faded during the many years it had been in storage. A new kind of buffing is taking place - a "celluloid buff" - that threatens to eradicate the record of the first brave and indomitable writers who took the world by storm. Fortunately, it will be possible to repair it, using digital technology, painstakingly working on each damaged frame. The restored film will have unprecedented sharpness and clarity and the vibrant colors of the painted trains will be revealed in their original intensity.
Public Art Films, (the original publicly funded company that produced the film) is embarking on a project to restore STYLE WARS and bring it up to the highest technical standards available today in order to create a High Definition edition of the film. They will be transferring the original 16 mm negative into full HD 1080p while cleaning and restoring the film during the process. The HD master will be better, sharper and more brilliant than the original.
You can help preserve that history!
Public Art Films is inviting the public to take part in this historic enterprise. They are presently on a fund-raising mission to restore the original print, and to create a new high definition master which will preserve the record of the first painted trains to its original vivid colors.
Additional accolades:
"Talk about groundbreaking films: Style Wars, a documentary about graffiti artists, was first broadcast by PBS. A prescient study of taggers, their exuberant art and the roots of hip-hop culture." --Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
"A stunning achievement. The mother and son constitute one of the most deeply human encounters I know of on film." --Ronald Gottesman, Professor of English, University of Southern California
5 Stars -- Highest Rating! The best hip hop culture study ever made." --Stuart Derdeyn, Vancouver Province."
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